Ferns & Horsetails

Asplenium

Blechnum

Cyrtomium

Dryopteris

Matteuccia

Osmunda

Polystichum

Pteridium

Athyrium

Asplenium adiantum-nigrum Black Spleenwort Often found on walls and bridges around Bury. Common.

Asplenium ruta-muraria Wall Rue Evergreen plant of walls and bridges around Bury Common. Was used as a cure for Rickets

Asplenium trichomanes Maidenhair Spleenwort. Often found in walls common in Bury and used as laxative.

Asplenium scolopendrium crispum This is a cultivated form of Hart Tongue Fern found Marie Loiuse Park.

Asplenium scolopendrium, hart's-tongue feern. Very common in woods and walls around Bury.

lady fern athyrium filix-femina. Very common in Bury. Has a short erect rhizome with many large scales. From this arises a crown of usually outwardly arched twice or three times pinnate yellowy green fronds 20 to 100 cm long with pinnules deeply cut. With distinctive sori/spores under the leaf.

hard fern blechnum spicant Very disatictive leaves. Diagnostic is leaf fronds reduce in length up the leaf to diferentiate it from similar looking Polypody. In Bury found in Mere Clough and Reddisher Wood.

Cyrtomium falcatum Chinese Holly Fern . This was found in Moses Gate Bolton. It is a native of Asia with very distinctive leaves. Rare in GM it is an escapee or planted.

scaly male fern dryopteris affinis. Common in woods and shady places, Fronds typically 30-120 cm. Pinnules 2-5 mm wide. Sori 0.5-2 mm wide. Brown scales are profuse even midway up rachis, as in pics below. Pinnae have a dark spot at base. In Bury found in Reddisher Wood. A very variable plant.

common male fern dryopteris filix-mas Has a short, stout, erect rhizome shaggy with old frond bases and pale brown scales. It normally bears a single crown of soft dark green fronds, 15 to 150 cm long. This fern is normally bi-pinnate. The pinnules have rounded tips and are serrated all round. The sori underneath the pinnules are round and normally run in two parallel rows. Common in Bury.

Royal Fern Osmunda regalis. The name Osmunda possibly derives from Osmunder, a Saxon name for the god Thor. The name "royal fern" derives from its being one of the largest and most imposing European ferns. Osmunda evolved and has remained all but unchanged for 180 million years which was confirmed in 2014 by studying fossils. It is not common in GM. This was found in Tameside.

soft shield fern polystichum setiferum is an evergreen or semi-evergreen fern native to southern and western Europe. The fern's bright green fronds are 30–120 cm (12–47 in) long, usually drooping downslope, with typically 4-10 fronds on a mature plant. The fronds are soft-textured, bipinnate. The round sori occupy two rows on either side of the midrib of each pinnule and are covered by a centrally-attached, umbrella-like indusium with fringed edges. They produce light yellow spores.

Hard Shield Fern Polystichum Aculeatum A bipinnate fern with pinnules that have sharply pointed teeth and spine-pointed tips. In Shield Ferns the pinnae nearest the stalk are 'mitten' shaped and in Hard Shield Fern the 'thumb' angles away from the stalk. Lowest pinnae much shorter than middle ones, tapering into the stipe. Much more shiny in appearance than most ferns, having a very sleek and classy look. Fronds exposed to the light are sometimes pale green, but mostly they are darker green especially those in shady crevices.

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Bracken Pteridium aquilinum This fern is found in moorland, hill pasture and a variety of other habitats with acidic soils. It particularly thrives on deep loams and sands, but is rare on alkaline soil. This species reproduces by means of spores, which are released from the brown spore-cases on the undersides of the fronds. It can also spread by vegetative reproduction, from a subterranean creeping storage organ known as a rhizome. Very common in Bury

Matteuccia struthiopteris ostrich fern is a crown-forming, colony-forming fern, occurring in temperate regions in eastern and northern Europe, The species epithet struthiopteris comes from Ancient Greek words, struthio meaning ostrich and pterion meaning wing. It grows from a completely vertical crown and sends out lateral stolons to form new crowns. It thus can form dense colonies resistant to destruction by floodwaters. Very distinctive shuttlecock shape often im gardens this is from Clifton.

Equisetum HorseTails

Equisetum sylvaticum â¢ Wood Horsetail. This perennial horsetail has erect, hollow stems that grow from 30 to 60 cm in length and from 1-4 mm thick. The branches themselves are compound and delicate, occurring in whorls and drooping downward. There are generally 12 or more branches per whorl. Fertile stems are at first tan-to-brown and unbranched, but later become like the sterile stems, which are more highly branched and green. All the stems have 10-18 spiny vertical ridges that contain silica spicules. Common in Bury.

Equisetum hyemale • Rough Horsetail It is primarily found in wetlands, and in riparian zones of rivers and streams where it can withstand seasonal flooding. [2] It is also found around springs and seeps. The tiny leaves are joined together around the stem, forming a narrow black-green band or sheath at each joint. Like other ferns and their relatives, the plant reproduces by spores and does not produce flowers.

Equisetum fluviatile • Water Horsetail is a perennial horsetail that commonly grows in ponds, ditches, and other sluggish or still waters with mud bottoms. It is a herbaceous species, growing 30–100 cm tall with erect dark green stems 2–8 mm in diameter, smooth, with about 10–30 fine ridges. At each joint, the stem has a whorl of tiny, black-tipped scale leaves. Not uncommon in Bury.

marsh horsetail equisetum palustre common

Polypodiaceae

Polypodium vulgare Common Polypody is afern which can live high up on trees, Not common in Bury it can be found in the Elton area.